May 05, 2011

After posting the collagen cookies some comments made me realize I should probably take a moment and post that super overdue“collagen” update I said I’d do.

I want to preface this by saying everyone is different can yield different results. I can only share my own personal results with using collagen supplements.

Think of collagen as being like vitamins. Results will not be immediate. And also like vitamins, many people are skeptical of their benefits. Maybe collagen, like vitamins, are only ingredients for very expensive urine. And maybe you’ve already tried collagen and they didn’t do you any good and yielded no real results. Some people have told me collagen made them break out worse than before taking them. Though negative results are still results I suppose, ha! So, that’s that. Onto my thoughts….

I love collagen!

No, really. I have seen changes in my skin especially in my acne. I already follow a strict regimen to keep breakouts under control. But there were some things I just could control. Like PMS breakouts. No matter my good habits I’d get a few, very large, deep, pimples during that time. But since taking collagen in January I stopped getting those zits. Actually even the few zits I’d typically get stopped.

Oh, the biggest change was I had a bad breakout “zone” left over from November. I had the deep zits suppressed but not completely gone. There just under the skin. After I started the collagen that patch of acne disappeared!

So in January I started with the SHIBUGAL collagen jellies. I really, really liked these and think they yielded the best results. Unfortunately they’re hard to find. I bought them at Don Quixote in Shibuya.

Next I moved to DHC’s supplement tablets. Still liked them. Easy to take. Made from fish collagen so slight fish taste when taking them. You take 5 a day throughout the day a few at a time is OK.

I was happy with my collagen results. My face cleared up and that’s all I cared about most.

So I’ve been buying this US brand of collagen supplements NeoCell Super Collagen + C! I even just recently bought my second bottle as I continue taking daily collagen supplements. I buy mine at the local GNC store.

One thing to note.
I only take 1/2 the dosage of the US supplements. The bottle suggests 6 pills total a day.

take three (3) tablets twice daily preferably on an empty stomach

I instead matched the DHC dosage to the US brand dose which came out to only 3 a day instead. I didn’t want to add unnecessary amount of collagen to my daily intake when I was already happy with the smaller dosage effects from DHC.

COLLAGEN (Collagen Hydrolysate) is a complex structural protein that maintains strength and flexibility of skin, ligaments, bones, joints, muscles, tendons, gums, teeth, eyes, blood vessels, nails, and hair. SUPER COLLAGEN™ TYPE I & III is 100% pure collagen protein that provides building materials for growth and maintenance of a healthy body. Super Collagen™ is enzymatically processed into its amino acid form with a very low molecular weight, which can be utilized 100% by the body. SUPER COLLAGEN+C™ tablets are formulated with Vitamin C to provide optimum supplementation of your dietary collagen needs.

I’ll keep taking it for as long as I think it benefits me. And for me I like the pills best. Things like cookies or drinks with collagen are great for a little extra collagen boost but I don’t think they’re as good as daily supplements.

Also I should note that I’ve recently been taking this Sundown Naturals Hair, Skin and Nails multivitamin that has a small amount of collagen in it too. I find my nails grow crazy fast now! I’ve been taking them since early March I think.

So that’s my spiel on collagen! :)

PS: if you know what the vitamin comment is from (TV show) you get a special wink face reply

48 Responses to “I Take Daily Collagen Supplements”

I take Nutricap capline capsules for hair and nails, and I noticed my hair and nails grow faster ^_^
I also take Evening primrose oil capsules, and they make my cramps almost non-existent (sorry for the bit of TMI haha)
but I agree, there are different results for everyone
with that in mind, I would love to try collagen supplements, unfortunately I am too young (they are not recommended for anyone under 25) -_-’

I’ve never heard the not recommended for under the age of 25 thing & it’s not on the label. Strange. I’ve heard of talk about your body losing collagen after the age of 25 so same diff I guess. Like anti-wrinkle cream is pointless on a 17 year old xD!!

wow thanks for a lot of information about supplements! Actually im totally newbie at this topic hahaha but the results are great! Specially for hair, im very interested in this ;-;
Thanks for writing and sorry for long time no reply!
^_^

Along with the collagen & multivitamins I have to take 2 other digestive aids so I have a 5 day a week pill case I carry with me & fill up. It’s small & only cost like 99cents. I bring it in my purse every day.

omg I so need to try this! I especially liked how you got results not only with your skin, but with your nails too~ my nails constantly grow in weak & chip off easily, so I’d be interested to see how these would work for me.
Thanks as always for sharing, Jenny~! ♥

hehe it sounds like you’re really happy about your good results from taking Collagen supplements!
It sounds like it’ll really help in maintaining those horrible breakouts I tend to get.. really tempting !
I’m sure I’ll get around to visiting GNC sometime ~ ^_^

I also take collagen supplements, the one that I like the best is Meiji Japan-the one that comes in powder form, I prefer those, they’re easier for me to take.

It’s great that collagen supplies can be found in the US, with the exchange rate the way it is, it just doesn’t seem feasible anymore to get the collagen supplement imported. I will definitely check them out once I am done with this one can of the Meiji one, thanks for the post!

Luckily there’s a powder form of the US one, yes! If you’re happy with the meiji one you might want to compare dosage directions + mg of collagen in each dose and sorta try to match what your meiji one was. I feel the US versions really try to pump you up with higher servings of collagen =Y

Oh! Thank you for sharing your experience using collagen! I’ve never thought about using collagen but it does sound like it would help me a lot with the issues that I have with my own body… maybe I’ll check some out! ^^

They seem the same except the US pills are like 3 times bigger lol. The US ones just switch to bovine collagen though which I like soooo much more and seem to work just as well. No more fishy aftertaste!

Oh! wow I love collagen too XD I take about 12 a day maybe I’m over doing it TToTT but after I saw you had the American brand one I noticed that I had the same brand! but I bought mine from Costco so I got the big ass size!

Wow, I’ll have to stop by GNC sometime and check it out! Though the jellies sounded pretty super too. In your previous post you talked about having to lose some weight from a while ago. What was your layout of how you did things? I have the worst problem with sticking to a plan.

Let’s see, in all I lost about 25 lbs 2 years ago! Things were really slow going until I joined livestrong.com and started tracking my calorie intake every day. You can set your height + weight and how many pounds a week you’d like to lose and it’ll give you your daily calorie goal to stick to. Granted I liked the site better 2 years ago but it still works.

Basically you gotta find good food replacements and stop eating junk. Even some foods deemed “healthy” I consider junk. Like granola and nuts. They are high in calories!!! I never eat them unless they are in 100 calorie pack form. I switched to all sugar-free, fat-free, and light versions of any food I could. Sugar-free syrup is 15 calories per 1/4 cup while regular syrup is 200 for 1/4 cup. HUUUGE difference!! And yeah it tastes “funny” at first but a few weeks in you totally won’t be able to tell the difference. I swear to you. B/c I used to want to barf if I drank a diet soda but I found one I could sorta deal with and now they all taste the same! Actually better, regular soda is WAY too sweet for me to drink & hurts my stomach badly if I do drink it.

That’s another thing. I can’t eat sugary or oily junk food without “suffering” for it now. It’s a double-edge sword. It sucks the few times you want to indulge but the upset tummy keeps you from over-indulging too often so there’s no scary fear you’ll gain it all back you know? In the end you’ll have changed what you eat daily enough that the weight will stay off :)

I don’t know what you eat now, maybe healthier than I used to. I used to eat ice cream and cookies and Japanese candies and potato chips etc etc nonstop. Now I eat non-fat frozen yogurt, only 100 calorie packs of cookies, sugar-free gum, and light potato chips like Lay’s Light or Special K Cracker chips!

Hope that helped. Let me know if you need food recommendations etc. I didn’t really exercise much. I suck at that. I did use to get out and walk for about 15 minutes after dinner either in the neighborhood or even better window shopping a mall. Just walking you burn calories! The only other thing I ever did was play Just Dance or Wii Fit on nights I went over my calorie intake so I’d burn off the extra calories.

I could really use faster-growing nails because I have a bad habit of staring at them when they’re too long and then cutting (or biting them, but not to an extreme point or anything) and then they end up being too short for me to go get a manicure. I need them to grow super quick in two days before I cave and cut them! Collagen here I come.~~ I’ve been saying “I’m gonna go get my nails done!” for MONTHS now and never manage to go. I’ve just been wearing clear polish or glittery ones that are easy to apply. I should really get some will power. xP

I always thought collagen was just for skin elasticity/smoothness. I never knew it could be good for acne too!! *0* I think I’m going to try a bottle of these later…. However there are other ways to get collagen too through food. I don’t know how familiar you are with Chinese food but you can make a really simple and healthy fish soup which tastes good too boot! Since there’s quite a bit of collagen in fish, you can basically buy any type of fish (though at least a medium sized fish is better simply since bigger fish = more flavour in soup) and lightly pan-fry the fish with a little bit of olive oil and ginger to get rid of the fishy taste, add cold water and simmer away. You can then transfer the fish and soup to another larger pot and add more water if you want but you’re basically done! I love adding in tomatoes which add a nice sweet-sour taste and adding some white pepper is nice too :) Lots of collagen there and nommy tasting!

Someone else asked this a few comments up too. They’re about the same except in terms of brand choices and product choices. Effect so far has been the same which is good. I do miss the rose hip collagen+ drinks and cookies etc, etc But seems collagen is collagen and the line at GNC resembles Meiji’s lineup.

thank you so much about the info ^^
i’ve also seen lollies with collagen, and i think they’ll be my choice since i can’t swallow pills D: but then again…im not even in my 20s so i don’t think i need them :D

I definitely need to try those, my skin has been bothering me since I entered puberty. D:
I was wondering, where did you find the emoji you use in your blog entries? Don’t know if it’s considered a “professional secret” or something, it’s just that I want cute emoji in my own blog, and am completely clueless as to get them. :c

Nah~ I find them online like at ameblo.jp and sozai sites and also through deco mail iPhone apps ;) I save them and switch them out randomly so I can’t really recall where these particular ones are from.

Yea the DHC ones say after a meal while these US brand say 30 minutes before on an empty stomach. I read that there’s some debate on the best time to take collagen as well as debate on which form of collagen works best. A lot of people feel the powder is most potent but blegh drinking fishy tasting stuff x6

I take Biotin for skin, hair and nails. (I was dangerously sick and lost a lot of weight which did not help my hair and nails.) I’m anemic too, so I take Iron as well. I thik I’ll look into Collagen to help with my hair and nails too. Thanks.

I am super interested in the hair, skin and nails multivitamins :) But beside the improvement in nails, did you notice anything else? (e.g. hair and skin :P)

Also that quote is from The Big Bang Theory!! :3 :P Sheldon says it to Penny when she takes him to the grocery store after he gets fired from the university and he attempts to perfect scrambled eggs! Haha! Soo good! :D

Yaaay another TBBT fan!! I was feeling forever alone there for a while ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

Hum. I feel like my hair grows a bit faster but nothing I can really really pinpoint on just THOSE vitamins bc I take so many other supplements including extra vitamin C etc. Etc. CVS sometimes has them on sale. They might be worth just picking up and trying out. I definitely recommend getting one with collagen to boot!

collageeeeeeen i still haven’t found very much here!!! i am REALLY surprised about that, maybe i am not looking in the right places…?? with how much korean girls care about their appearance i would’ve thought for sure collagen would be a big thing.

BUT ANYWAY!! so i still haven’t really found any (i found a collagen face mask that i used once, but uh…idk), but related to your skin woes (or lack there of these days!) i have pretty much STOPPED using any kind of foundation on my skin. i still use the benefit powder (& still LOVE IT thank you hahaha), but i’ve noticed my skin is WAY better than it has been for a long time D: the things i used to make my skin look better temporarily were the cause of my skin looking bad…FML all the shit we go through just to have good skin and sometimes it’s the thing we are using FOR good skin that is causing our troubles.

Oh, after this post I really want to go find some now. The ones your taking now say to take them on an empty stomach? Have you been doing that, or not? Usually when I take pills on an empty stomach I get sick, so I think I’d end up taking them after eating. Have you felt any side effects like that?

I never tried collagen supplements before but I tried a lip gloss containing collagen and it works great! My lips felt softer yet firm. I wonder where I can get collagen pills in my small town though. I would really like to get rid of my PMS zits along with some old dark spot and scars. But thanks for the great review!